


Decorating for Christmas

by EdwardSwan (amesthesergeant)



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Basically New Moon didnt happen, Edward never left so he's in Forks with Bella for Christmas, F/M, Merry (belated) Christmas!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 06:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17177360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amesthesergeant/pseuds/EdwardSwan
Summary: Edward helps Bella and Charlie decorate for Christmas.





	Decorating for Christmas

“I could be wrong but isn't it a little early to be putting up your Christmas decorations?” Edward asked, carrying four large boxes as he followed Bella, who was carrying a small bag that held the tree topper (the only thing Edward would let her carry) up from her basement. “I mean, I'm sure there are some children in town still on a sugar high from Halloween candy...you know since it was only two days ago.” He put the boxes down on the floor of the living room before pulling Bella into his side. 

Bella glared up at his smiling face, “You are definitely wrong.” She wasn't about to hear his slanderous words about 'decorating too early’. “Charlie has always decorated this early you grinch.”

“I'm not saying it's bad, it's just a little early.” Edward lets her out of his arms, kissing her lightly before grabbing her hand so he can gently tug her back to the basement to get more stuff. “We usually wait until a few days before Thanksgiving, but that's mostly because Esme wants the decorations up for all the holidays or it probably wouldn't be up until the first of December.”

“Oh we don't celebrate Thanksgiving.”

“Why not?”

Bella shrugs as she watches Edward pile boxes onto a bigger box that's holding the Christmas tree, “Charlie always said ‘it's a pointless holiday celebrating colonization’,” at seeing Edward’s incredulous look she raises an eyebrow, “is he wrong?”

“No, that's fair...and very true.”

“Yeah, I know.” 

They head upstairs and as Edward puts down the last boxes Bella hears Charlie's cruiser pull in. She turns toward Edward with an excited smile, “Do you want to stay and help?” 

Edward can't help the big smile that crosses his face at seeing the pure joy coming from his love. “If that's what you want then of course. I'd love to.”

“Great!”

Just then the door opened and they both turned just as Charlie walked in. He paused at seeing the matching slightly manic grins on their faces. “Are you two on something right now? Should I leave and pretend I was never here. I realize that's wrong as the chief of police but I can let it slide this once,” at that moment he notices all the boxes labeled ‘decorations’ covering almost all the surfaces of the living room. “What's going on?”

“I figured we could decorate early like we used to...if you want to that is,” Bella explains, trying not to get disheartened by his lack of immediate excitement.

“Oh! Oh yeah that sounds great Bells,” a smile slides onto his face, gentler than any Bella has seen on him before. As a matter of fact she's almost certain he's tearing up. Charlie continuing to talk pulls her from her thoughts, “just let me get changed and we can get started.”

“Okay!” Bella's excitement is back in full swing.

“Are you gonna be joining us Edward?” Charlie asks with forced politeness. He still wasn't entirely over the whole Bella ‘running away to Phoenix because she broke up with her boyfriend of three days’ thing. Bella wishes she could tell him the truth just to make him lighten up but she's definitely not gonna be the one to tell him about vampires so she's learning to live with his passive aggression toward her boyfriend.

“If it's alright with you Chief Swan than I would love to stay and help.”

Charlie looks at him for a long moment before sighing, “Sure kid, the more the merrier. Right Bells?” He asks, his smile coming out in full force when he looks at his daughter. 

“Yeah, definitely.”

As Charlie disappears up the stairs Bella turns to look at Edward, “Okay what was that about?”

Edward looks up from where he was taking stuff out of boxes and gives her a look of confusion before realizing a second later he's going to have to ask for a clue, “Okay, you know I frustratingly don't know what you're thinking so can you please elaborate?”

“Why did it look like Charlie was gonna cry?” At Edward's look of reluctance she pushes, “C'mon just tell me….if I'm gonna keep a mind reader around you might as well be useful.” 

Edward gives her a deadpan look to which she replies with a small pleading smile, “I love you?” 

Edward sighs, knowing there was no way he wasn't going to give into her eventually, “Fine...it's just...he was thinking about how the last time he decorated was the last time you stayed during this time of year, and how he wishes he hadn't missed so much...and he hopes he can make up for that time.” 

Bella gets a sad, almost guilty, look on her face, “Oh.”

At seeing and hearing the sadness in her eyes and voice, Edward's eyes widen slightly in distress, “See!? This is why I didn't want to tell you. This is supposed to be a fun day.” After a second he closes the small space between them and pushes the sides of her lips up, ‘'Come on, smile. He's not sad anymore and you shouldn't be either. It's a happy day, we're making new memories to replace the bad ones. We can do whatever you want today...cookies, a snowman, gingerbread house...you name it and we'll do it.” He continues pushing the sides of her lips up playfully until a smile slowly spreads on her face and a small giggle escapes her mouth. “There we go.” He smiles in response, “it's a good day, no more frowns okay?” He asks as he pulls her into his arms giving her a kiss on the forehead.

“Alright.” Bella rolls her eyes at him fondly, “We're making new memories,” she repeats back to him.

“Exactly.”

Bella pulls back from him to start opening more boxes just as Charlie comes back down.

“Okay let's get started!” Bella starts tossing stockings at Charlie. “There's yours, mine,” Bella pulls out a handful of at least six other stockings and looks at them in confusion before turning one over to see the name on it, “Oh! I forgot they used to spend Christmas Eve with us!” She hands Charlie the stockings containing Jacob, Leah, Sue, Seth, Harry, and Billy's names.

“They still spend Christmas Eve here,” Charlie responds offhandedly as he hangs them. 

Bella knows that they probably started spending Christmas with Charlie so he wouldn't be so lonely and she can feel the sad guilt start to well inside of her once again, she realizes her face is probably showing what she's feeling when she sees Edward mouth to her “New happy memories,” while miming an over exaggerated smile. She rolls her eyes but pushes the negative emotions down nonetheless. 

“So are they coming this year?” Bella asks as she starts taking Christmas lights out of the same bag. 

“Most likely, yeah.” 

A thud draws their attention to where Edward is currently putting up the Christmas tree, “Sorry,” Edward grips the fake branches of the tree,“it slipped.”

Bella gives him a disbelieving look but he's already turned back to his task. She decides to just approach the topic later, knowing the topic of Jacob isn't one to bring up around Charlie. The sound brings Charlies attention back to Edward. 

“So, Edward, what does your family do for Christmas?”

Edward's already moved on from the tree, which is sitting upright and even in the middle of the room, to untangle the cluster of lights next to Bella. Without pausing in his movement he looks up to answer Charlie, “Well it's usually just us. We'll have dinner, open gifts, watch movies, listen to music. My mother really enjoys baking so we do a lot of that too.” 

“It must be nice to have such a big family during this time of year.” 

“Yeah,” Edward replies with a small smile, “it's nice but it can be overwhelming sometimes.” I love them though.”

Charlie smiles at him as he grabs a handful of lights to start putting on the tree. Bella can't be sure but she thinks an early Christmas miracle just happened. She continues pulling out ornaments and soon enough Edward is helping her but after he pulls out about five, he pauses on one and a bright smile crosses his face, “Is this you Bella?” 

She looks at the small ornament that looks like it could be a kindergarten project. It's a small 'frame’ made of popsicle sticks with a picture of her covered in mud, grinning at the camera, two baby teeth obviously missing from her smile. “Yeah, I was like six years old I think. Right dad?”

Charlie knows which ornament they're talking about without even looking up. “Yeah, I went to Phoenix to visit and you had wrapped it up all by yourself and you were so proud, it's my favorite ornament.” He finally looks up from his work to give her a fond smile. She blushes.

Edward finally looks up from the picture, grinning widely, “Well you were adorable.”

Bella playfully glares at him, “Were? I am still very adorable thank you very much.” 

“Of course, how foolish of me to insinuate otherwise.” 

“It was very foolish...you should know better.”

Soon enough all the decorations are up, and all the ornaments are on the tree. Charlie looks around him, feeling nothing but pure joy. 

“Time for the tree topper.” Bella says pulling it out of the bag it was in. It's a painted blue, green and red star that looks hand made and decades old. Bella would honestly be terrified to hold it if she didn't know very well first hand that it could handle much worse than her clumsiness.

“You wanna put it up Bells?” Charlie grins at her, happy knowing that he's finally going to celebrate this holiday with his beloved daughter after so long. 

“Yeah! I have to find the step stool though.” 

“I can just carry you instead.” Edward offers, walking back into the living room from the kitchen with a mug of hot chocolate for Bella. 

Charlie raises an eyebrow, “You sure that's a good idea?”

Edward just smiles in return, “Bella's very light, I'm sure I can handle it.”

“Okay, c'mon hurry up.” Bella reaches for the mug, takes a small sip then sets it down before gesturing for Edward to follow her to the tree.

“Make it believable,” she whispers to him.

“Like I said, I can handle it,” he chuckles.

Soon enough the tree has it's topper and Bella is enjoying her hot chocolate with her boys on either side of her. “We did so good guys.”

Later, right before Edward leaves Charlie speaks up from the kitchen table, “Hey Edward, if you're folks don't do anything for Christmas Eve you should come over.” 

Edward smiles shyly, “I would like that Chief Swan. Thank you.”

Bella's certain now. There is no maybe about it, a Christmas miracle definitely happened here today.


End file.
